This morning I met up with Bill to pre-run the "Slacker's Half Marathon" trail. This race is taking place this weekend - 13.1 miles from Loveland Ski Area to Georgetown.
We parked Nick's sexy truck at the Georgetown Visitor's Center and went in Bill's red pickup and green trailer (yes, he does dress as Santa Claus, remember) to Loveland.
They are laying down new road up there, so we were sharin' the road with tractors, semis, bobcats (the machinery, not the animal), etc.
Nestor and Thumper were our burros for the day. Nestor is old and Thumper is sort of a baby - definitely a burro racing novice. But they were good boys! Bill and I only ran for about 6 miles and walked the rest of the way. We made sure to run when we passed the old Georgetown Train and random people on the highway who were taking pictures of us! Check out the link for the train! It is a narrowgauge and SUPER cool.
When we rolled into Georgetown it was about lunchtime and people came out of the woodwork to say hi to Bill. Apparently I was with a local celebrity. We left the burros munchin' on some grass on the sidewalk (!) and went and gave the Georgetown officials the report on the trail. When we came back they were just where we left them! Bill said that it wouldn't be a big deal if a burro was wandering the streets in Georgetown. LOL. Check out the Georgetown site! It is such a cute little town.
The best part of the day was getting the burros over some grates in Georgetown. They are terrified of grates. You have to yank them for like five minutes to get them across - and even then they jump over the grates like deer!
Lessons learned:
Thumper refused to run without Nestor. Nestor wouldn't run without some butt-thwacking. Which means sometimes I was behind Nestor, holding Thumper's lead, smacking Nestor's butt. Burro racing really is a team sport. Most of the way Bill was smacking Thumper's butt from behind, too.
So I guess you could say Bill and I were smacking each others' asses for 13 miles. And this is probably the only sport you can actually say that in an appropriate way.
Also: Burros love banana peels. Yep. It is a big treat for them. Perfect way to win them over after breakfast!
Today's Bonus: We saw a big fat marmot wriggling around in the cool dirt on the path. So fat and cute. **In case you don't know what a marmot is, here is a pic I did NOT take:
I DID IT! And my reward? A Rockies game against those nasty Red Sox tonight.
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